1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a material handling system and, more particularly, to a system for packaging, transporting and sorting mail and other material for routing and delivery.
2. Background Description
In most modem postal facilities, major steps have been taken toward mechanization (e.g., automation) of the delivery of mail, packages and other items. These machines and technologies include, amongst others, letter sorters, facer-cancelers, automatic address readers, parcel sorters, advanced tray conveyors, flat sorters, letter mail coding and stamp-tagging techniques and the like. As a result of these developments, postal facilities have become quite automated over the years, considerably reducing overhead costs.
However, large volume mailers such as publishers are still saddled with a long and involved process in their facilities that involve substantial labor to deliver flats (i.e., magazines, flyers, books, and the like) in a cost efficient manner. First, mail must be sorted to certain depths in order to obtain reduced postal rates, and this sorting process can involve many special considerations such as sorting by size and destination. But, the overhead involved with preparing large amounts of flats for mailing is often related to the rates that the mailer is attempting to achieve. For example, if there is a large amount of mail to one particular destination neighborhood, the mailer can attempt to pre-sort mail in a bundle for the neighborhood mail carrier, even sorting to a depth matching the sequence of the delivery route. This is among the lowest cost rates available. If the mailer actually delivers the sorted bundles to the appropriate neighborhood post office, the rates are even better.
However, there are a host of mailing rates and sorting possibilities that might affect the postal rates. By way of illustrations, mailers can elect to sort the mail or flats to various levels of granularity, or depth, depending on the costs and volumes involved. If mail is sorted to the level of a given central post office processing facility, it is one rate. If the mail it is further sorted to particular post office destinations, it is a better rate. If still the mail is sorted by a carrier route within a post office, it is yet a better rate.
However, the overhead to perform these types of sorting and packaging with accuracy and with flexibility is very labor intensive particularly when various shipping bundle sizes result, which can, in turn, aggravate the shipping process. More specifically, mail flats are typically bound together to facilitate shipping and handling. However, varying bundle sizes can result in the shipping becoming particularly inefficient. Moreover, current practice typically calls for rotating sections of flats within a bundle in order to keep the bundles of uniform length, overall. If the rotation does not occur, the spines or bound edges, which are thicker than the non-bound edges, may cause a xe2x80x9cbananaxe2x80x9d effect or a tipping of the product when stacked at the publishing facilities. To ensure that the xe2x80x9cbananaxe2x80x9d effect or tipping does not occur, the mailer will either tightly wrap the bundle or, more commonly, assemble the stacks of their product in a counter rotated bundle, i.e., with the bound edges rotated every so many pieces in order to maintain a straight stack. In the former stacking process, the product is bound so tightly with several straps, shrink wrap and the like that the product is damaged during the bundling and transportation process. By using the counter rotation procedure, however, a mail sorting facility, whether it be a postal facility or other delivery or transportation facility, must reorient the stacks so that all of the bound edges are aligned.
These bundles are typically stacked on pallets for mass transport to mail facilities. Because of the potential different bundle sizes or even with similar bundle sizes, the pallets themselves can be of unpredictable sizes with inconsistent packing arrangements that may not be easy to unpack at the postal facilities. These pallets are typically unloaded manually and then the bundles opened by hand for entry into the sorting processes at the mail facility. This is very labor intensive. Little standardization of the bundling and palletization currently exist.
The present invention provides solutions to the shortcomings of current mail handling processes.
In a first aspect of the present invention, a system for processing mail is provided. In this system a packing mechanism packages flats into one or more logged bundles and a stacking mechanism stacks the one or more logged bundles onto one or more pallets in a first sequence based on bundle information. A de-stacking mechanism breaks down the one or more pallets in a second sequence based on the bundle information. A transport system transports the one or more pallets from the stacking mechanism to the de-stacking mechanism. A controller controls at least one of (i) the stacking mechanism to load each of the one or more bundles in the first sequence based on at least bundle information and (ii) the de-stacking mechanism to unload each of the one or more bundles in the second sequence based on at least the bundle information.
In embodiments, a first conveyance mechanism conveys the bundles to the stacking mechanism and a second conveyance conveys the bundles away from the de-stacking mechanism and to either a bundle storage area for storing the de-stacked bundles or a flats sorter for sorting flats from the de-stacked bundles. In one embodiment, the stacking mechanism and the de-stacking mechanism comprises a robotic arm capable of lifting the one or more bundles. The robotic arm is controlled by a controller controlling the movement of the robotic arm to predetermined locations on predetermined pallets of the one or more pallets based on the bundle information. A counter may be provided for counting the one or more bundles moved by the robotic arm to the predetermined pallets. In another embodiment, the stacking mechanism and de-stacking mechanism may be a conveyor mechanism. In the de-stacking conveyor system, a lifting mechanism lifts a top layer of the bundles from the one or more pallets and tilts to form a gap between the top layer and a next layer of the one or more bundles. A laterally movable separator conveyor penetrates into the gap for moving the one or more bundles from the top layer.
In another aspect of the present invention, a control system controls the mechanism for stacking the one or more bundles onto the one or more pallets. The control system includes:
1. a first controller for storing bundle information associated with the one or more bundles;
2. a second controller for controlling a scanner which scans the bundle information;
3. a third controller for determining the availability and errant bundle information associated with the one or more bundles;
4. a fourth controller for controlling a moving mechanism to load each of the one or more bundles to a predetermined pallet or location based on the bundle information, availability and errant bundle information; and
5. a fifth controller for determining whether the pallet is full and, if so, determining a position of a non-filled pallet for moving a bundle of the one or more bundles.
The fourth controller, in embodiments, may also control the moving mechanism to move each of the one or more bundles to a predetermined location on the predetermined pallet. Additionally, the fourth controller may include a counter for counting each of the one or more bundles moved to the predetermined pallet in order to prevent over filling of the predetermined pallet, and when the predetermined pallet is full, it determines a new position for the predetermined pallet.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a control system for controlling the breakdown of pallets into bundles is provided. In this control,
1. a first controller stores bundle information associated with the one or more bundles;
2. a second controller controls a scanner which scans the bundle information;
3. a third controller controls an unloading mechanism to move each of the one or more bundles to a predetermined conveyance system; and
4. a fourth controller determines whether the pallet is empty and moves the pallet to an empty pallet stack.
The fourth controller, in embodiments, determines whether there are any more pallets required to be broken down. If there are more pallets to be broken down, the fourth controller controls a mechanism for moving a next pallet proximate to the unloading mechanism.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for processing mail. The method includes the steps of building bundles, stacking bundles onto pallets, transporting the pallets and breaking down the pallets. In embodiments, the steps further include conveying the bundles to a bundle storage or a flats sorter, wherein the bundles are stored in the bundle storage or conveyed to the flats sorter based on the scanned information. If in the storage area, the bundles are retrieved, conveyed to the flats sorter and opened for extracting the flats for sorting. The bundles, in embodiments, are provided in a sleeve container, i.e., an L shaped or U shaped sleeve. When stacking the bundles, the bundles are scanned to obtain destination and sort depth information data as well as a host of other information.